


bring back that old song

by lunardistance



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: F/F, F/M, Future Fic, Nostalgia, Radio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22374328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunardistance/pseuds/lunardistance
Summary: On an ordinary day, Usagi hears a familiar, nostalgic song playing on the radio, and thinks about the boy that once sang it to her.
Relationships: Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi, Seiya Kou/Tsukino Usagi
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	bring back that old song

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by listening entirely too much to Solar and Kassy's "A Song from the Past." Many thanks and all the love to Aly (@alykapedia) for beta-ing this for me!

The passing wind blew across the clotheslines, threatening to toss her blouse into the air before Usagi caught it with a firm hand and stuffed it into the basket at her hip. Fastening the last of the clips back onto the line, Usagi slipped off her outdoor slippers and slid the glass doors close behind her.

Outside, the sky was still a bright blue, leaving her with quite some time before she had to start on dinner. Curry tonight for her and Mamoru, she thought, with some fish for Luna.

She puttered around the living room, switching on the radio for some background music before clearing space on the floor to fold clothes. The faint sounds of children playing outside was drowned out by an old idol song, and Usagi hummed to the familiar melody as she sorted through the laundry.

"And that was 'Charming Point' by Alice-chan! How nostalgic," the DJ cooed. "I used to sing this song at karaoke at least once a week when I was in high school."

Usagi hummed in agreement – she'd loved Alice when she was still a student, bugging Motoki to turn the volume up each time her songs played at Crown.

"Speaking of idols, here's another blast from the past that you guys will love. Ah, this played _everywhere_ when it came out. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing it. Coming up is 'Nagareboshi E' by the Three Lights."

Usagi dropped the shirt she was folding the instant the song started playing, her heart clenching the moment the background singers started crooning, "Search for your love."

She hadn't listened to this song in years, she realized. In the days that followed the Starlights' departure with Princess Kakyuu, "Nagareboshi E" seemed to play endlessly as a tribute to the incredibly popular idol group that had suddenly disappeared into thin air. At least, until the next up-and-coming singer took over the airwaves, at which point Usagi resorted to listening to her CDs, wearing them down until she was forced to stop for fear of ruining them entirely.

By then, original copies of the releases were nearly impossible to hunt down.

By then, real life had taken over. Between Mamoru finishing his studies and starting up his internship, finishing her own studies, and her friends pursuing their own goals, it seemed as if time sped by faster than she thought it ever could. The new millennium was just around the corner, and with it, the advent of Crystal Tokyo. It was only a matter of waiting, and of chasing after dreams while they still had the time.

But this song took her right back to those days. Chaotic days of trying to get tickets for the next Three Lights event. Sleepless nights confronting Galaxia's minions and purifying the humans whose Starseeds they had corrupted.

Sun-drenched days on the rooftop, listening to them sing. Starry nights spent walking home with one Seiya Kou.

Seiya. Sailor Star Fighter.

He'd sung this song for her many times, and each time was more heartrending than the last the more that she understood why they were singing it.

They had chased their Princess' scent here, all the way to the far side of the galaxy, and had filled this town with their song in hopes of finding her. Meanwhile, she and the other Senshi faced the threat that had followed them here, fighting harder and harder as the enemy grew stronger and stronger, all while she tried to deal with Mamoru's absence on her own.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, Usagi met Seiya. On those sunny days and star-filled nights, she was an average daydreamer of a high school girl, and he was a cocky but kind hearted high school boy. During those moments that he would sing snippets of songs to her on the rooftop before teasing her about something or other, she was just Usagi.

"I want to see her," Seiya's voice crooned on the radio.

Usagi had cried the night they departed, near inconsolable as the realization of loss settled over her. The pain seemed endless, lancing through her each time she turned around to find an empty seat behind her, or when she peered out of her balcony to find no one waiting there. It hurt until it didn't, until time healed the wounds over and blurred the memories both good and bad.

She wondered how they were doing now. She hadn't seriously thought intragalactic communication was possible just yet – Ami would probably know better, but she was busy with medical school now, and surely, she would say something if Maker managed anything from their end, right? But still…

At the very least, Usagi hoped they were doing alright. She hoped that Kinmoku was flourishing, and that its inhabitants had been restored along with all of the others whose Starseeds had been taken. She hoped that Kakyuu's beloved had returned to her, and that the Starlights were happy to be back home with their Princess.

She wondered if they thought about Earth from time to time. Did they think of the Senshi of the Solar System, too? Did they remember mundane things like playing cards in her living room and a camping trip by the lake, or scary things like fighting each other before facing Galaxia together? Did he remember coaching her in baseball and taking her out dancing in the middle of the day? Did she remember risking her life to save her, over and over again?

Usagi wondered if they missed being the Three Lights sometimes, performing on stage to the adoration of thousands of people. She thought about them bringing copies of their albums to Kinmoku – little souvenirs of their time on Earth. Maybe they would find a way to play them, to remember the songs they had sung to find their Princess. She thought about "Nagareboshi E" playing all the way on the other side of the galaxy, of that song traveling back the distance they had traversed to come home to Kinmoku and continue living on there.

She wondered if Fighter still sung it sometimes. Maybe not to an audience. Maybe just to Kakyuu, or the other Starlights. Or maybe just to herself.

She wondered if she sang it and remembered singing to Usagi, too. Whether within the same room at a live event, or all the way across the park where Usagi had watched from a Ferris Wheel. She wondered if the song brought her happy memories, too. If the song stopped being a call to the Princess she was now with, and instead became a remembrance of the girl she had fallen in love with.

She’d gotten it. She really had. And maybe in another place and time, in another universe, in another life, she would have traveled back with her, flown across space to beautiful Kinmoku, and stayed there with her. Or maybe she would have stayed here, listening to Seiya sing for crowds of people before ducking backstage and telling him, “You did well,” and getting teased for crying but going home afterwards with their hands clasped together.

But that’s all in a different world. In this one, all she has to remember him by are old posters, worn out CDs, a teddy bear keychain, and the songs he left behind.

"Usako?"

Standing in the doorway was Mamoru, back from his latest shift at the hospital, with convenience store bento boxes dangling from one hand and a bag of groceries clutched in the other. Only then did Usagi realize how late it had gotten – the sky was dark blue, the radio show had long ended, and Luna had emerged from the bedroom in anticipation of dinner.

Mamoru set his purchases and his bag on the dining table before making his way to her side, rubbing a thumb softly over her cheek. "Were you crying?"

Usagi smiled, shaking her head. "Just heard a sad song on the radio."


End file.
